Material for the Preparation of the Programme of the R.S.D.L.P.

Notes On Plekhanov’s First Draft Programme

I.The principal economic feature of present-day society is the
	    domination of capitalist production relations in it,

Page1. No. I—Capitalism is not a “feature” of
	    present-day society, but its economicsystemormode, etc.

i.e.,ownership of the means of production and of commodity
	    circulation by the numerically very small class of capitalists,

No.2—The means of production belong not only to the
	    capitalists, but to the landowners and small producers as well.

whilethe majority of the population consists of proletarians,

No.3—The proletariat is not the majority of the population in
	    many countries.

whohave no other possession but their labour-power, and cannot
	    subsist except by selling it.

No.4—The proletariat possesses certain articles of
	    consumption (and partly means of production too).

Inconsequence of this, the majority of the population is reduced to
	    the dependent position of wage-workers, whose labour creates the
	    income of the capitalists.

Page2. No. 5±of the landowners.

II.The sphere of domination of capitalist production relations is
	    constantly expanding, as continuous technical progress

Topage 2. Not technical progress but private owner ship
	    expropriates andver elendet[Impoverishes.—Ed.]the small producer.

increasesthe economic importance of the big enterprises and thereby

No.6—“and thereby”?? Of itself technical progress can notincreasethe economic importance of the big enterprises. As
	    the result of technical progress (+a number of economic changes,
	    such as in market conditions,etc.)small scale production is being
	    oust ed by large-scale production.

decreasesthe number of independent small producers, reduces their
	    role in the economic life of society,

No.6-7. Capitalism does notalways"decrease the flu m b e
	    rof small producers" (relatively, and not necessarily
	    absolutely, particularly in Russia).(Capitalism expropriates and leads him—the small
	    producer—to degradation and impoverishment....)Page 2. No. 7. Reduces the role of the small=increases the
	    economic importance of the big (one and the same thing).

andat places turns them directly into vassals and tributaries of
	    the big manufacturers.

No.8—Directly—delete. The process of the separation of
	    the producer from the means of production is not indicated.

III.Capitalist production relations weigh more and more heavily on
	    the working class, as technical progress, by increasing the
	    productivity of labour, not only makes it materially possible for
	    the capitalists to intensify the exploitation of the workers, but
	    converts this possibility into reality, occasioning a relative
	    reduction in the demand

Page3 of the original draft.No. 9.+and on the small producers (the peasants in general should be
	    specially mentioned).No. 10—giving rise to, or engendering.

forlabour-power simultaneously ’with a relative and absolute
	    increase in its supply.

Page3—expressed in an extremely unpopular, abstract way. Far
	    better in the Erfurt

	    Programme[4]“...the army of surplus-workers is growing”,
	    “insecurity of existence is increasing.”

IV.The development of labour productivity does not raise the p rice
	    of labour-power, but, on the contrary, is very often the direct
	    cause of its reduction. Thus, technical progress, which signifies an
	    increase in social wealth, causes greater social inequality in
	    capitalist society, widens the distance between the propertied and
	    the property- less, and increases the workers’ economic dependence
	    on the capitalists.

Page4—“the price of labour-power” is very often reduced
	    (also expressed in a very abstract way;=the growth of exploitation,
	    oppression, poverty, degradation) ."Thus” causes greater
	    inequality. It would appear from this that greater inequality is
	    engenderedonlyby the increase (intensification) in theexploitationof the wage-worker, whereas it is engendered:1) by the expropriation of the small producer +2) by the
	    impoverishment of the small producer+3) by the increase in
	    exploitation +4) by the growth of the reserve army.

V.With such a state of affairs in capitalist society and with the
	    constantly growing mutual rivalry among the capitalist countries on
	    the world market, the sale of commodities necessarily lags behind
	    their production, and this periodically causes more or less severe
	    industrial crises attended by more or less lengthy periods of
	    industrial stagnation, leading to a further

Page5. Is it necessary to indicate thecausesof crises in
	    the programme? If so, the shortcoming is that two causes are
	    indicated: 1) greater social inequality (“with such a state of
	    affairs," p. 4)

	    +2) the growth of rivalry. The basic cause ofcrises=Planlosigkeit,[Planlessness.—Ed.]

	    private appropriation under social production, is not in dictated.

reductionin the number and economic importance of the small
	    producers,

Pages5-6: reduction of the“e c o n o m i c

	      i m p o r t a n c e”of the small producers is too abstract a term. Expropriates
	    (=reduces the number?) andverelendet.

toa still greater dependence of wage-labour upon capital,

Page6—ofwage-“labour”?Isn’t it better to say of
	    theworkers?

andto a still more rapid relative, and at places even absolute,
	    deterioration of the conditions of the proletariat and the small
	    producers.

Page6—consequences of acrisis—relative and
	      absolute deterioration of the conditions.Isn’t it better to
	      say plainly: unemployment, poverty of the workers and the small
	      producers.

VI.But as these inevitable contradictions of capitalism grow and
	    develop, the discontent of the working class with the existing order
	    of things also grows, its struggle against the capitalist class
	    becomes sharper, and in its midst the realisation spreads ever more
	    widely and rapidly

Page7—instead of discontent —indignation.Page 7—the spreading of a
	    realisation (—γ) is placedon a parwith the
	    growth of indignation (—α) and the aggravation of the
	    struggle (—β). But α and β are spontaneous,
	    whereas y should be introduced byus.

thatthe yoke of economic dependence, which lies on its shoulders,
	    can be thrown off only through its own efforts, and that to throw
	    off this yoke a social revolutionis necessary, i.e., the destruction of capitalists production
	    relations and the conversion of the means of production and of the
	    circulation of products into public property.

Page7—“only through its own efforts”. This should be
	    expressed in a more general way:can be the act only
	      of the working class, etc.Pages 7-8, 1) destruction of capitalist production
	    relations?—Socialist

	    production[1]t a k i  n gt h ep l a c e[2]of commodity production, 2) the expropriation of the exploiters, 3)
	    the conversion of the means of production intopublic
	    property?The conversion of private into public property.

VII.This revolution of the proletariat will emancipate the whole of
	    mankind, now oppressed and suffering, since it will put an end to
	    all forms of oppression and exploitation of man by man.

VIII.In order to replace capitalist commodity production by the
	    socialist organisation of the production of articles to satisfy the
	    needs of society and ensure the well-being of all its members, in
	    order to effect its revolution,

Page9–unclear[3]:

“to satisfy the needs of society and
	      ensure the well-being of all its members.”This is
		insufficient:(cf. the Erfurt Programme: “the greatest
	      well-being and all-round harmonious perfection”).

theproletariat must have command of political power, which will
	    make it master of the situation and enable it ruthlessly to smash
	    all the obstacles it will come up against on the road to its great
	    goal. In this sense the dictatorship of the proletariat is an
	    essential political condition of the social revolution.

Page9. “Master of the situation,” “ruthlessly to
	    smash,” “dictatorship”??? (The social revolution is enough for
	    us.)

IX.But the development of international exchange and the world
	    market has established such close ties among all nations of the
	    civilised world, that this great goal can be attained only through
	    the united efforts of the proletarians of all countries. Hence the
	    present-day working-class movement had to become, and has long
	    become, an international movement.

Page10—nil.

X.Russian Social-Democracy regards itself as one of the detachments
	    of the world army of the proletariat, as part of international
	    Social-Democracy.

XI.It pursues the same ultimate aim as the Social-Democrats of all
	    other countries set themselves.

Page11 .—“The sameEndziel.”[Ultimate aim.—Ed.]

	    Why the repetition?

Itdiscloses to the workers the irreconcilable antagonism between
	    their interests and those of the capitalists, explains to them the
	    historical significance, nature, and prerequisites of the social
	    revolution which the proletariat is to carry out, and organises
	    their forces for an unremitting struggle against their exploiters.

Page11. Might there not be confusion?—"The sameEndziel—andright along side thetaskof the
	    Social-Democratic Party:

	    1) To discloseto(?) the workers the irreconcilable
	    antagonism between their interests and those of the capitalists. 2)
	    To explain to them the significance, nature, and prerequisites of
	    the social revolution (±the necessity of revolution?).The Germans put this more forcibly:weisen naturnotwendiges

	      Ziel.[To indicate the naturally necessary aim.—Ed.]

	    3) To organise their forces for an unremitting
	      struggle againstt h e i r

	    e x p  l o i t e r s

	    (N.B.?+a g a i n s t

	    t h e

	    g o v e r n m e n t?)+?

	    t o

	    d i r e c tthe struggle of the proletariat.1) is included in 2). 1)— too limited. It should be: a to
	    indicate the ultimate aim, β to create an organisation of
	    revolutionaries todirectthe struggle of the proletariat.

XII.But its immediate aims are considerably modified by the fact
	    that in our country numerous remnants of the pre-capitalist —
	    serf-owning — social system are an oppressive burden on the
	    entire working population and are the most difficult of all the
	    obstacles hindering the progress of the Russian working-class
	    movement.

Page12. “Remnants of the serf-owning system ... are an
	    oppressive burden on the entire working population” (+the
	    retardation of the development of productive forces +the
	    deterioration of living conditions+keeping the whole people in a
	    state of ignorance and subjection)—the most difficult obstacle
	    (=remnants)? (What are these remnants? The
	    autocracy—I—all the rest? This is saidb e l o w.)

TheRussian Social-Democrats still have to work for the
	    establishment of those juridical institutions which, constituting a
	    natural legal complement to capitalist production relations, already
	    exist in the advanced capitalist countries

12-13:necessary to work for the establishment ofthose(?)juridicalinstitutions whichalready(?)existin the advanced countries. (These should be named
	    more concretely. Unpopular.)

andare necessary for the complete and comprehensive development of
	    the class struggle of wage-labour against capital.

Page13—of wage-labour?—of the workers, of the struggle
	    of the working class against the capitalist class
	    for its complete emancipation.

Andsince the tsarist autocracy, which is the most out standing
	    remnant of the old serf-owning system and the most harmful in
	    respect of further social development, is wholly incompatible with
	    these juridical institutions, and since by its very nature it cannot
	    but he the bitterest and most dangerous enemy of the proletarian
	    emancipation movement,

Page13. The autocracy is incompatible with these juridical
	    institutions (with political liberty??).

theRussian Social-Democrats advance as their immediate political
	    task the overthrow of the monarchy.

Page14. Since thea u t o c r a c yis incompatible— the overthrow of themonarchy(inconsistent).

[1]It is necessary to explain what this socialist production is.
—Lenin

[2]As is stated on pages 8-9.
—Lenin

[3]In Lenin’s manuscript the word “unclear” is written above the
words “to satisfy the needs”.—Ed.

[4]The Erfurt Programmeof the German Social-Democratic Party was
      adopted in October 1891 at the Congress in Erfurt. Compared with the Gotha
      Programme (1875), it was a step forward, being based on the Marxist
      doctrine that the capitalist mode of production must inevitably yield
      place to the socialist; it stressed the need for the working class to wage
      a political struggle, indicating the party’s role as the organiser of this
      struggle, etc. However,the Erfurt Programme, too, contained serious concessions to
      opportunism. It was extensively criticised by Frederick Engels
      (“Criticism of the Draft Social-Democratic Programme of 1891”), this
      being in essence a criticism of the opportunism of the entire Second
      International, for whose parties the Erfurt Programme was a kind of
      model. However, the leadership of German Social-Democracy concealed
      Engels’ criticism from the p arty rank and file, while his most important
      remarks were ignored when the final text of the programme was drawn
      V. I. Lenin and G. V. Plekhanov considered that the Erfurt Progamme’s
      silence on the dictatorship of the proletariat was its chief defect and a
      cowardly concession to opportunism.